Human rights advocate found stabbed to death in the Maldives

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Police in the Maldives said Sunday that they're investigating the stabbing death of a prominent blogger and human rights advocate.

Police said in a statement that Yameen Rasheed was found Sunday morning with multiple stab wounds in a house in the capital, Male. He died at a hospital.

The motive for his killing was not immediately known.

Rasheed was an advocate of human rights and freedom of speech. He discussed politics and other social issues on the internet, including health, migrant labor rights and policing. He was a friend of journalist Ahmed Rilwan, who went missing in 2014 after being abducted, and has been in the forefront in the campaign to locate him.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party called for an investigation with foreign assistance into Rasheed's death, saying that the country's police do not have the capacity or impartiality to conduct such an investigation. It said Rasheed had recently filed a case against the police over their inaction in determining Rilwan's fate.